On Monday morning (June 28), the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) began selling a prime Marina View site after an unidentified developer pledged to pay at least $1.508 billion for it.
The white site, which is slated for a mixed-use development including residential, hotel, commercial, and/or serviced apartments, is on the Government Land Sales Reserve List for the first half of 2021.
On September 21, at 12 p.m., the public tender for the land parcel will conclude.
The property has the potential to produce 905 private residential units, 2,000 square meters of commercial space, and 540 hotel rooms. Any tender that falls below the $1.508 billion minimum bid price – or $1,379 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) – will be rejected.
The Marina View property, which is located in the Central Business District and near the planned Shenton Way MRT station, should profit from the Greater Southern Waterfront transformation, which will stretch from Pasir Panjang to Marina East.
According to The Business Times, a person connected to IOI Properties Group was the one that triggered the site’s release for sale. A spokesperson for the organization refused to comment when reached on Monday.
The Malaysia-listed company is building another white site in Central Boulevard, which it bought for $2.57 billion in November 2016 after triggering its release for sale with a $1.536 billion minimum offer. This equated to a land rate of $1,689 per square foot per year.
The IOI Central Boulevard Towers, according to IOI Properties, is “progressing and is scheduled to be finished by the third quarter of 2023.”
The development is located near few MRT stations – Downtown, Raffles Place, Lau Pa Sat, Marina Bay, and Shenton Way – will provide 1.25 million sq ft of Grade A office space in two buildings. The average office floor plate will be between 21,700 and 25,400 square feet.
The project will feature 30,000 square feet of retail space in addition to an urban sky park and food and beverage establishments.
The Marina View white site, according to Mr Wong Xian Yang, Cushman & Wakefield, is unique in that it is planned as a hotel and residential development with a modest retail component.
“As a result, the primary bet here is on the revival of the hotel industry and the development of the private condos in the CBD… Demand for premium residential apartments inside the CBD is anticipated to increase as more family offices set up business in Singapore “he said
Given the limited supply of new condos in the prime district, particularly in the heart of Central Business District (CBD), and plans to “inject vibrancy into the Central Business District and Marina Bay area does not become a ghost town after work hours,” PropNex CEO Ismail Gafoor said this site could attract a lot of interest.
The 99-year parcel consists of two plots: a surface parcel of 7,817.6 square meters and an underground area of 18 square meters. The property has a maximum GFA of 101,629 square meters.
He said, ” “The Marina View site has the potential to be a showcase project for a developer in Singapore’s central business district. Given the significant financial investment needed for the property, developers may form a joint venture to compete for it in order to mitigate risk.”
Developers may utilize the commercial white use’s flexibility to propose uses like coworking office spaces or entertainment venues, according to Mr Ismail.
“Because the project would contain the equivalent of a mid-sized hotel business,” he added, “it will make logical to include meeting and convention facilities, maybe even medical facilities that allow for regular Covid-19 testing and vaccines as part of the new normal moving ahead.”
Developers may be more interested in the Marina View site than the Central Boulevard site, according to PropNex’s director of research and content Wong Siew Ying, owing to the restricted availability of residential units in the premium area.
The property may possibly get five to eight offers, with a maximum price of $1,650 to $1,750 psf ppr. According to her, this translates to a land price range of $1.8 billion to $1.91 billion.
